In the past, mobile hand-held computers typically had very low memory resources and a short battery life. These restrictions caused mobile hand-held computers to be very one dimensional meaning that they could only run or execute single function computer applications. For example, many mobile hand-held computers could only run a small suite of specific applications such as wireless e-mail and electronic calendars.
But advances have been made in the art so that mobile hand-held computers are now more robust. For example, many mobile hand-held computers are capable of running or executing multiple computer software applications that can be found on most non-mobile, fixed desk-top computer systems. For example, many mobile hand-held computers can run complex graphical user interfaces and computer operating systems such as Microsoft Windows® and Linux.
While significant advances have been made in mobile hand-held computers, the technology that allows these mobile hand-held computers to wirelessly connect or “couple” to larger computer networks such as wide area networks (WANs), local area networks (LANs), and the Internet has not progressed at the same rate. Wireless technology that allows mobile hand-held computers to connect to larger computer networks is critical for the mobile hand-held computers because of the need for the exchange of data between a mobile hand-held computer and a larger computer network.
Data usually must be exchanged between a mobile hand-held computer and a larger computer network because of the context or application of the mobile hand-held computer environment. For example, a corporate entity may have hundreds of employees who do not work in a typical “office setting” and who use mobile hand-held computers on a daily basis to generate revenue for the corporate entity. One such environment includes a sales business in which sales employees are constantly away from their home “office setting” because they are meeting potential customers at respective customers' places of business.
Another environment that requires a mobile hand-held computer to exchange information with a larger computer network includes the construction business. The construction business usually includes employees who are working at a new site in which conventional wired connections with a larger computer network are usually unavailable or are inconvenient (or both). In such an environment, only a wireless link between an employee's mobile hand-held computer and the larger corporate computer network is practical.
In all of the mobile computing environments described above, the data exchange between the mobile hand-held computer and the larger computer network can benefit both the employee with the mobile hand-held computer and the company who manages the large computer network. The employee can benefit from the data exchange by receiving the most current information regarding tasks or work that have been assigned to the employee. The employee can have access to more information than can be stored on his mobile hand-held computer by being able to connect to the larger computer network that has significantly more data records because of the size of its memory relative to the mobile hand-held computer.
Similarly, the larger computer network can benefit from the data exchange by receiving the most current information that is collected by the employee with his mobile hand-held computer. The larger computer network allows a company to track the progress made by its employees in field who are outside of the conventional “office setting.” In this way, the larger computer network allows a company to view the larger picture by accessing all of the data collected by its employees in the mobile environment.
The data exchanged between the larger computer network and the mobile hand-held computer can be any type of binary content. Such binary content can include, but is not limited to, photographs, signatures, voice, text files, word processing files, spreadsheet files, programs for the mobile hand-held computer, and other like binary content.
To exchange data between the mobile hand-held computer and a larger computer network over a wireless link, conventional technology often requires a rather complex conversation between the mobile hand-held computer and the larger computer network. For example, many conventional wireless solutions treat mobile hand-held computer should like an Internet browser that is trying to access an Internet web service which can be managed by the larger computer network. Such an Internet-like browser model requires a significant number of complex messages to be exchanged between the mobile hand-held computer and the larger computer network.
While some mobile hand-held computers and larger computer systems could be designed to support the Internet model, the design would likely only function if the wireless link was perfect. In other words, many conventional wireless solutions for the mobile hand-held computer environment assume that the wireless link can always be established when it is requested by either the mobile hand-held computer or the larger computer network. This is not the case because of the nature of wireless links. Typical wireless links include a radio frequency type in which the mobile hand-held computer communicates with the larger computer network using radio frequency electromagnetic waves. Other wireless links can include, but are not limited to, magnetic, optical, acoustic, and other similar wireless technologies.
Wireless links are usually never perfect and usually cannot be established when they are requested or desired. This means that a wireless link between a mobile hand-held computer and a larger computer network is usually short lived and may occur only intermittently. Many conventional wireless solutions for the mobile hand-held computer environment do not take this inconsistent and periodic nature of wireless links into account, and therefore, most conventional solutions fail to establish a meaningful data exchange between the mobile hand-held computer and the larger computer network. Many conventional wireless solutions consume too much time during a wireless communication link performing the same tasks that occur during a wired communication link.
Another problem with conventional wireless solutions for the mobile hand-held computer environment is directly related to the assumption that a wireless link will always be available and that it not be subject to disruptions. Specifically, the conventional solutions try to determine what is required of the mobile hand-held computer and the larger computer network while the wireless link exists. In other words, because conventional solutions assume that the wireless link will be perfect and available on demand, the solutions determine what is needed by the mobile hand-held computer while the hand-held computer is linked to the larger computer network.
Similarly, the conventional solutions also determine what is needed by the larger computer network from the mobile hand-held computer only during the existence of the wireless link. Such extended processing during the existence of the wireless link consumes valuable time without any meaningful data being exchanged between the mobile hand-held computer and the larger computer network.
One conventional mobile hand-held computer solution that can be used with wireless links at the time of this writing is Merger Replication. This technology is made and marketed by Microsoft®. This conventional solution encounters many of the problems discussed above. In addition to the problems discussed above, this solution also encounters problems when several hundred mobile hand-held computers are trying to establish a wireless link at the same time.
The processing load on the receiving systems with this conventional solution is usually very high when the receiving systems are servicing several hundred mobile hand-held computers. The size or volume of this load can causes this conventional solution to require a significant amount of maintenance to keep it running. For example, the databases and the logic that handles the communication between the mobile hand-held computer and the larger computer network are very tightly connected such that any change to one element in the middleware system directly affects another element in the middleware system. This wireless solution can be characterized as a very brittle environment that operates in real time or in a synchronous manner. Because of the tight relationships between the real-time or synchronous elements, the conventional solution can be very susceptible to failure in large mobile computing environments.
Conventional wireless solutions for the mobile computing environments typically break down when a threshold number of users are being serviced. It has been found that this threshold is usually about three-hunched (300) mobile hand-held computers. Any number above this threshold can cause the conventional systems to rapidly break down or simply fail. The conventional solutions are simply not scalable for servicing hundreds and thousands of wireless mobile hand-held computers.
Accordingly, there is a need in the mobile computing art that is scaleable and flexible so that hundreds or thousands or similar orders of magnitude of wireless mobile hand-held computers can be serviced by a single unified system. There is a further need in the art for a mobile computing solution that allows information to be exchanged efficiently over a wireless link between mobile hand-held computers and a larger computer system. There is a need in the art for a system that is designed to handle the inconsistent and periodic nature of wireless links with mobile hand-held computers.